Soul Calibur: Slayer
by Joshua The Evil Guy
Summary: Soul Edge, after centuries of imprisonment, has finally escaped its Seal. Reading the signs, the Watchers send a team to recover both blades, Xander, Faith and Buffy. Meanwhile other warriors across the globe begin their own search for the mystic weapon
1. Battle 1: Xander VS Taki

Title: Soul Calibur: Slayer

Author:Joshua

Disclaimer:Namco owns the Soul Calibur series, and all related characters of course, meanwhile Joss Whedon and Mutant/Enemy Productions created the characters Xander, Buffy, and Faith, and other related such characters. A lot of the relationships between all characters is different from what might be "said" to happen in the games, mostly due that these characters are the "descendants" of those characters, living in modern times, yet still weapons masters of the same martial art forms and weapons and all, of course, are looking for Soul Edge and/or Soul Calibur.

Summary:Soul Edge, after centuries of imprisonment, has finally escaped its Seal under Soul Calibur, coinciding with the activation of the Slayer Line. Reading the signs, the Watcher's send a team out to recover both blades, meanwhile other warriors across the globe begin their own search for the mystic weapons.

Author's Notes:Post Angel Season 5, the Scooby Gang, with notable exceptions of Giles, Dawn and Willow, took vacations, with the others reforging the New Watcher's Council, going to school in Cleveland, and mastering Magick, which was more fun except in Dawn's case. Buffy, after living it up in Italy for a year, finally got over herself and returned to her happy normal self and was no longer depressed, or attracted to 'evil guys', just the bad boys. Faith received counseling and dated Wood for all of a month before moving on and returning, in part, to her previous lifestyle of action, sex, and one-night stands, and finally made peace with Buffy and the rest of the Scoobies, just because. Xander, took a looong vacation away from demons, and then under the advice of Giles and Willow, began studying martial arts, partly to teach them to Slayers, partly to use for himself. After his sojourn to Africa and setting up the Slayer Camp there, he took another vacation before returning to England just in time for this latest assignment. He hasn't seen Buffy, Faith, or Willow in more than a year, yet has maintained correspondence. Dawn got over her Xander-crush, has dated in High School, is now attending Oxford in England, is NOT a part of the story, WILL **NOT** be a part of the story, and because she was made out of Buffy's Blood, became a Slayer after she turned 18 and Willow took the last of the Key out of her. Willow is still working on learning more about magic, but is argued to be the most powerful magic-user in North America as well as across all of Europe. She's also the one that detected Soul Edge's Awakening.

Story:

Battle 1:_Xander_ **vs**. _Taki_

A Hellmouth, believe it or not, can often be very convenient.

Xander missed the Hellmouth.

Because then he could blame the dark forces of Hell and mystical convergences for things like this instead of his own shitty luck.

Things like facing off against a demon-hunting Kunoichi in mortal combat. For those not fluent in multi-cultural references, a kunoichi is a female, that is woman, ninja, which is BIG trouble for the Xan-man!

"Well, at least your stance is correct, heh," she teased him as she placed her hands on her weapons, a pair of ninja-swords, known as tantō, one on her back across her right shoulder, the other on her lower back, able to be drawn from her left hip. She was wearing a midnight-blue form-fitting leotard, with armored shin-guards, shoulder-pads, and fingerless gloves, and had her dark black hair pulled back into a functional ponytail.

Of course Xander, being Xander, couldn't help notice that her form was more for that of a Baywatch lifeguard, or Penthouse supermodel, and her pale skin only highlighted the beauty of her Asian features, making allusions in the Field-Watcher's mind about how kunoichi used to be viewed as prostitute-assassins.

But what a way to go!

Xander, himself, however, was in a garish multi-colored Hawaiian shirt, like many American tourists would be, gray cargo pants, and Nike® sneakers, all topped off by his eye patch. He was also holding his specially crafted (by himself) fighting staff, six-feet long with a grip-pad at the center that covered the inner-two-feet, and he actually was holding it in the proper defense-stance for a staff of this type and weight. Given that he'd spent the last two and a half years studying and training in the martial arts, and specifically the Bojutsu discipline coupled with English quarterstaff arts, and Escrima Arnis stick fighting thrown in (mostly because he kept getting his staff broken in half by his teachers, he had little choice).

"Are you sure we have to do this?" Xander said back nervously, readying himself for her attack anyway.

She just glared hard at him, and they seemed to be waiting, waiting for some kind of signal, waiting for the other to attack first. It seemed to come, ironically after a 3-count in Xander's head, and the ninja-lady drew the tantō from her back and charged right at him. If he didn't move she would gut him right there!

Good thing he did move, side-stepping her charge and twisting his body to put as much force as he could into a horizontal sweep with his staff, landing it in the middle of the woman's chest and knocking the breath out of her. Not really wanting to fight at all, and certainly not wanting to kill a fellow human being, not to mention fellow demon hunter, Xander backed up as she fell to the ground, holding her chest, keeping his guard up.

"Stay down!" he warned, not wanting to seriously hurt her. Or for her to seriously hurt him!

Instead of heeding his advice, she rolled up to her feet, her weapons sheathed once more, but her hands still on them. She eyed him with distrust and an analyzing eye. Without another word she charged him again, and he planned on just side-stepping again, though maybe to the other side to throw her off, but he was the one thrown off as instead of stabbing with one, she drew both blades, and he was momentarily stunned when he saw bluish green flames ignite around both of them.

"What the . . . ?!" he exclaimed, and all he had time to do before she struck.

She drew both blades straight out and then spun them in her hands, creating flaming disks in both her hands and slashed them at Xander, knocking him back and to the ground. Shaking himself to clear the cobwebs, he quickly scrambled to his feet, screaming, "What the fuck?!"

In response she just grinned at him and then made a sealing motion with her hands and if he didn't know any better, her body was suddenly surrounded by a blue aura, and when she charged him next, she was moving much faster than before.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" he repeated with more volume and just kept his guard up.

She was hitting harder too, he noticed, but so far he was managing to block all of her hits. So long as she didn't catch him off guard any more, he hoped he could hold her off. Thank god she wasn't a Slayer! Although in retrospect, he thought, it was probably a good thing that he had so much experience getting beat on by Slayers. It made getting beat on by beautiful ninja women that less jarring.

Suddenly she stopped and did that sealing thing again, glowed blue all over again, and then pause as she drew back her right fist, the blue glow converging on her closed hand. Xander only had time to think, '/_Oh shit!_/' before she punched the ground at his feet and there was an explosion!

Surprised, and also a bit hurt, he took a step back, but then she slammed her fist down again! And there was a slightly bigger explosion, knocking him further back. Then she did it again!

Really hurting now, Xander was just trying to stay upright despite the pain and hoping it was over, when he noticed she had put both hands together and then slammed them down right at his feet this time and the explosion was so massive, it actually sent him flying into the air!

He groaned as he landed on the flat of his back and struggled to make his body move, to get away from the crazy ninja woman with explosive magic. He managed to roll back and at least get into a crouched position, breathing heavily and hurting like he /_had_/ just fought a slayer or two!

"You won't be able to move for a while," she said to him before adding in a condescending tone, "try not to struggle."

'/_How the hell did I get myself into this situation?_/' he asked himself, and then recalled exactly how.

/_New Watchers Council HQ_/

/_London, England_/

/_1 Week Ago_/

"Hey G-man!" Xander exclaimed from right behind the Senior Watcher as he snuck into the room. "I'm back from my vacation! Can I have another?"

"Very funny Xander," the only true Englishman in the room drawled and turned to regard the Sunnydale Survivor. That title came to mean a great deal to both new Watchers and many of the new Slayers that heard the tales of the select few who guarded the Hellmouth for almost seven years.

"Now please join Buffy, Faith, and Willow in the sitting room, I'll be along to join you shortly, I just need to collect a few more books," Giles ordered.

Xander's happy expression immediately vanished and without a word he turned around and just as he'd reached the door and was about to leave the room, Giles, without turning around and his eyes solidly on the task before him, called out, "And don't even think about trying and slipping out, I had Aimee set up a ward to keep you inside the building until you're released, and I've informed Janice and Patrice that you've arrived."

Xander winced and almost drew his gun and shot the man behind him in the back of the head. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment! Aimee, Willow's "apprentice" for lack of a better term, had the skewed notion that wards are supposed to /_hurt_/ when you touch them, and Janice and Patrice were a couple of precocious and borderline-lethal slayers that Xander had personally recruited and trained for a little while. They also took up the torch of Dawn's crush on him, and tended more often than not to end up with him being in the literal middle of a tug-of-war between the two.

"Low blow G-man, low blow," the carpenter-turned-watcher growled back at the one man who was more a father to him than anyone else on the planet.

"Sitting room," was Giles' only reply.

Grumbling about Senior-Watcher power trips, Xander turned down the hall and quickly made his way to the closed off parlor where he found Buffy and Willow already sitting and waiting for him.

"Hey," he greeted jovially, having said Official Hellos on his way in, "where's Faith? G-man said she was waiting too."

"I think she's actually trying to get past Aimee's wards," Willow grinned at her lifelong friend as he sat down next to her.

"You, by chance, wouldn't happen to be willing to help us out a little there, wouldja Wills?" he battered her with his waiting-for-patent-approval 'Puppy Dog Eyes' as he begged.

"Sorry Xander," she grinned affectionately at him, "but no can do. Besides, this is my meeting, and it wouldn't make much sense for me to help you escape when I'm the one that needs to talk to you."

Xander, and Buffy both blinked, slightly alarmed. Giles calling a meeting and mentioning 'grabbing more books' was one thing. /_Willow_/ calling a meeting of the two best Slayers and /_the_/ best Field Watcher at the New Council's disposal was quite another.

"Buff," Xander called urgently, "you wanna go get Faith and get her back here. Now!"

She didn't even hesitate or look at her High School friend twice before jumping up to follow his orders. Nobody, not even Giles or Willow, argued when Xander pulled out his "Watcher" Voice. It was a voice and tone that /_demanded_/ immediate respect and obedience. Xander didn't contest this, he just praised the results as the only time he did pull out his Watcher Voice was when the situation warranted immediate and decisive action. Or, more often, to end stupid arguments between Slayers.

Shortly, Buffy, Faith, and Giles, all having arrived at the same moment, took their seats and turned their attention largely to Willow.

"Sorry for tricking you guys earlier," Willow apologized, "But Giles begged me as he never gets to have any fun, or so he claims."

The young adults turned briefly to glare at the sheepishly shrugging Giles, and then turned serious back to Willow.

"C'mon Wills, you never call meetings," Xander logically pointed out, "unless of course it's monumentally huge, like that Avatar business in San Francisco, or that time in New York."

"Well, on the plus side of that, we did get to meet the Hunters and the Daywalker and we've started organizing all the free lance groups into one conglomerate to handle the vampire and demon threats," the super-witch argued.

"Our point," Buffy intervened, "is that the only time you get involved and the only times you call meetings is when it's world-changing Armageddon-around-the-corner type stuff. So what's the crisis this time?"

Seeing that they weren't teasing her, instead saying they understood that the situation was dire and wanted to do whatever it took to help as soon as possible, Willow turned around and blinked hard at the TV screen in the room. The device flickered to life and showed a news report on "Ares Comet", a blazing red shooting star that had been seen from one end to the other of the entire Eurasian continent, as well as portions of a few others.

Once the report was over, Willow blinked again and the TV turned off.

"Ares Comet wasn't a comet," Willow began, nodding to Giles as he handed out folders and put down a number of his books before him. "It was mystical in origin, but worse than that, it's the signal that something long thought buried or destroyed has reawakened. I'll let Giles give you the basic history before telling you exactly what it means, so you can really understand /_what_/ it means. Giles?"

"Approximately five hundred years ago, during the 16th Century, much of the known world was under terrible strife. Historians claim it to be just a continuation of the Dark Age, but needless to say, none of us believe much of what /_historians_/ have to say," Giles displayed his contempt, and continued, "The true reason that much of the world was so devastated was because of a single weapon. /_Soul Edge_, and those that sought it, and the . . . the one that used it."

"First," Giles pulled out his books and began passing them around to the others, "it should be known that nobody actually knows the origin of the sword, but what it can do is very well documented. It's known by many other names. To those in northern Europe, it was known as the Soul Blade. To the Ancient Chinese, then Ming Empire, it was known as the "Sword of Heroes", or the "Hero Sword" to the Japanese, to the Persians as the "Sword of Salvation", and by many simply as the "Ultimate Sword". For quite simply that's what it was."

"It increases the Wielder's power and strength by magnitudes, but unfortunately it also brings great misfortune to those that seek and possess it." Giles paused as the three young heroes looked through the files, reading the overview of Giles' research of some of the massacres Soul Edge had been inherently responsible for.

"Somehow," he continued, "it came to be sold on an auction block to the dread Spanish pirate Cervantes, and forced him to consume the souls of the warriors that fought him for possession of Soul Edge, giving him a mockery, a demonic mockery, of eternal life. He remained undefeated for a quarter of a century before he faced a trinity of warriors that fought the darkness and destroyed demons. Unfortunately, in the process, Soul Edge shattered and it's hilt landed in the hands of a young knight, Siegfried Schtauffen. The rest of Soul Edge, it's fragments, flew up and scattered all across the world. The event came to be known as the /_Evil Seed_, bound to bring calamity and death across its path. For Siegfried was changed, transformed by Soul Edge into a living /_Nightmare_/. Nightmare, or the Azure Knight, reigned devastation and destruction all across Europe for the better part of the century. Whole armies were sent against the Azure Knight, and the demonic warrior, bearer of Soul Edge, slaughtered them all with severe ease."

"Sounds like the Judge," Buffy commented.

"Yes, well, that was the century before actually," Giles started furiously cleaning his glasses before continuing.

"Eventually, due to the combined efforts of a number of warriors, Soul Edge, and Nightmare were defeated, keeping the blade from reforging itself from its lost fragments. Unfortunately, that was not the end of it, as Nightmare still lived and possessed a piece of Soul Edge, and its fragments still existed out in the world. It wasn't until the spirit sword known as Soul Calibur came into existence that a way to truly be rid of Soul Edge was found. After much more fighting and many warriors searching for both blades, Siegfried, freed from Soul Edge's control, took Soul Calibur and pierced the center of what remained of Soul Edge, sealing the evil blade and it's dark powers away."

"I'm taking it that wasn't the end of it?" Faith asked.

"Soul Edge's evil, it's . . . demonic essence if you will, escaped into the vacated armor of the Azure Knight. Siegfried was freed and returned to human form, but the armor still remained you see, so Nightmare lived again, this time with no human occupant to fight against the demonic spirit. Despite Soul Edge being sealed by Soul Calibur, the fragments of Soul Edge were still out in the world, so the resurrected Nightmare began to seek them out once more and looking for the way to reattain its full power."

"Unfortunately, all we really know after that is that Nightmare was defeated yet again, this time by Siegfried, and then there is mention of another collaboration of numerous warriors searching for Soul Edge in dealing with the final destruction of Soul Edge and destroying the power of the remaining fragments forever. I've been able to gather some clues about exactly which warriors were present and what may have been done, but I'm afraid . . ."

"Thanks Giles," Willow suddenly interrupted him. "Ares comet is Soul Edge. Or rather, Soul Edge's fragments being scattered once more. I managed to track it back to, more or less, where it ended, the Osthreinsburg Castle, where Soul Edge had been sealed with Soul Calibur. I think somebody stupid, and now dead or worse, tried to do either a ritual or a spell there that woke up Soul Edge, or destroyed the seal Soul Calibur had it under. Either way, fragments of Soul Edge have now scattered all across both Europe and Asia."

"Which means either Soul Edge . . ." Xander began.

"Or Nightmare aren't far behind," Buffy finished.

"When do we leave?" Faith asked.

"In the morning, but you won't be going together," Willow answered. Then she nodded at Giles.

"As I was saying, I've been able to find some clues about the warriors involved in Soul Edge's ultimate defeat . . . or so we'd hoped. There were, well, legends you might say, of some of the warriors. A Priestess of the Wind, which I've traced to either Pakistan or portions of northern India," he handed one file to Faith, "A demon-hunting ninja clan known as the Fu-Ma," he handed another file to Xander, "which I've traced to Japan. And then the legends of two female warriors, sisters, and at least one said to be a priestess of Hephaestus. So, I'm going to assume that there would at least be some clues in Greece, at the primary temple of Hephaestus." He handed the last folder to Buffy.

"You'll find all the travel arrangements already prepared," Giles gestured to the file folders, "and of course you'll have unlimited access to the Council's funds, although I warn you now, be sure to keep your receipts."

Ironically it was Xander and Faith who winced at the reminder, while Buffy just blushed, as while she always made sure to keep the receipts and report what she bought with Council funds, she didn't tend very often to spend it strictly on Slayer or Council business.

"Also," Willow spoke up, "call me when you get there. I'm going to try and track down all of the Soul Edge fragments, as well as trying to see if I can find Soul Calibur. Chances are good, though unlikely, that once Soul Edge resurfaces, so will Soul Calibur. And anyway, I'll call you once I have a definite location, but I should still be able to guide you in the general direction until I can get a solid fix on a fragment."

"Furthermore," Giles brought the meeting to a close, standing up, "we don't know how many fragments there may be at this point, so this is going to take some time. And whatever you do, don't handle the fragments yourselves! We've prepared special containers for each of you, and these containers will seal on contact to your blood, so just ship them back to us and once you return you can open them up and we'll figure out what to do from there. There's always the Vault of course, but never mind that. We'll be working on that while you search for the fragments. In the meantime, god speed."

/_Abandoned Buddhist's Temple_/

/_Fu-Ma Province, Japan_/

/_Present_/

Given that the kunoichi seemed to be giving him some time, whether to catch his breath, think, or try and escape, Xander took full advantage of it and decided to see if he could buy any more time by engaging her in a battle of wits, while he tried to recover his wit in this battle so he could stop getting his butt kicked! By teenage girls that barely knew /_how_/ to fight was one thing, they were slayers after all, but by a demon-hunting super model looking ninja girl!

Although the blue flames and the exploding fists were definitely stuff to look out for, he had to admit.

"So, any chance you're part of the Fu-Ma clan?" he asked tiredly, over-exaggerating his weakness. But not by much.

"And how would you know of the Fu-Ma clan?" her hard voice demanded.

Damn! Even her voice is sexy, he thought.

"Well, was kinda looking for them, asked a few questions of the people down in the village. They didn't say anything by the way. So then I started asking about places to sleep, they said the motels were all full up. So people started suggesting I go beg a place on the floor at the nearest Buddhist temple, and this just happened to be the nearest one. Then you showed up and started attacking me. So that either means that I was tricked and the people sent me to the Fu-Ma clan under the guise of benevolence so the badass demon hunting ninjas would kill me, or I turned left instead of right at Albuquerque."

"Or you're just a fool," she insulted him.

"Or that," he admitted with a shrug, not really caring. He'd been called worse by prettier. Scary how true that was, now that he thought about it.

"Time to die!" and she charged again, moving quickly to close the distance between them.

"Damn," he cursed and rolled out of the way and backing away from her as fast as he could and still keep up his guard.

She didn't comment on how he was only defending, which meant she wasn't underestimating him unfortunately, but the way she kept circling around him maybe said she was overestimating him just the tiniest bit? Or maybe she just didn't want to get the wind knocked out of her again and she was looking for all of his weaknesses to exploit before absolutely destroying him. Xander's money was on the last one.

"Look, I know this was probably a mistake on my part," he said, keeping his distance and his guard up, "and I just know I'm stupid for even mentioning this at all, but I'm looking for Soul Edge, or rather its fragments so I can send them back to England where they'll either be destroyed or locked away forever! It's the truth!" he screamed when she charged again.

Thankfully he managed to block her strike and pushed her back some, yet deliberately did not take the opening that left him. Another mistake, he mused.

"If you seek Soul Edge, then you will fail!" she screamed at him and started a lightning-fast combo of high, low, mid and roundhouse kicks that he barely managed to block or dodge.

"Actually, I seek to destroy or prevent Soul Edge from coming back!" he shouted. "Something I /_thought_/ the Fu-Ma clan would be interested in helping me out with since one of theirs was there to help seal away Soul Edge the last time!"

She squinted her eyes in distrust at her opponent, yet didn't alter her stance in the slightest. Finally, "It does not matter anyway. If you cannot even defeat me, you are not worthy to even search for the demon sword! If what you say is true, then only the strong and the powerful with the hopes of attaining the blade can help in the fight to destroy it."

"So you're saying unless I fight you, you're gonna keep on trying to kill me, and unless I beat you, you aren't gonna help me," the one-eyed watcher surmised.

She just nodded and readied her stance once more, drawing her back blade and said, "Let's do this."

Xander took a deep breath, nodded, and said back, "What you said."

This time taking the aggressive stance, Xander charged and put his whole weight behind an overhead thrust, which the ninja then dodged. So, before his staff even hit the ground, he altered his grip and swung it around in a horizontal strike that hit the woman in the side of her ribs and knocked her back, but unfortunately she stayed on her feet.

Not letting up for a second, Xander swung his staff around again in an overhead strike, then pulled it back and thrust it like a pool cue at her guarding arm, driving her further back with his rapid attacks. He then swung down low with a sweeper kick, which got past her guard and flung her to the ground. Without stopping, he swung his staff around in a tight circle to build up force before bringing it down painfully on top of her torso.

Quickly he backed up, knowing the woman could jump and flip like nobodies business, and he wasn't particularly looking forward to getting beat anymore. Keeping an eye on her, he wasn't disappointed when she rolled back and away from him into a crouched stance, her blade drawn and her gaze steady on him.

"Not bad. So you're a worthy opponent after all," she teased.

"Yeah well, don't let it spread around, I've got a reputation to protect," he teased back with a lopsided grin. He spun the staff in another tight circle and waggled his eyebrows at her.

She snorted and nodded, charging in, fast as ever, once more.

Expecting her to attack with her blades again, he was unprepared for her to suddenly drop down and spin her long legs around like a propeller while she made like a disco-dancer, and kicked him several times over in the gut. Rather than allow himself to fall back, he swung his staff around but she managed to dodge him, rolling around and moving away and circling back around. He tried to keep his eye on her, but he was getting fed up with her fast-strike and run technique. Time to do what he told his Slayers to do in situations like these.

Stay alive, and win.

He charged his opponent, spinning his staff around on either side of his body, and spinning them faster and with more force with each rotation. She kept circling around him, making sure to stay a certain distance from him. He, meanwhile kept his eye on her, especially her footwork, and when he saw an opening, he took it, and spun around to his left and ran forward as fast as he could while adding the centrifugal force of his body spin to his already spinning staff. His move was so quick and unexpected, she couldn't react in time, just stumbling to a halt as he charged right at where she was, and slammed her with a devastating blow to her mid-torso, knocking her clear across their battleground.

Rather than let up, he charged her again, but this time, using his staff as a pole vault, he kicked his body high into the air, supported only by his weapon, and then began to fall towards her. About halfway down, he suddenly accelerated and brought his staff down in an overhead strike that landed painfully upon the ninja's body, causing her to cry out and try to roll away from him.

"Now about you trying to kill me?" he allowed her to get to her feet.

She regarded him, keeping her guard up, until she seemed to catch her second wind. Finally she said to him, getting back into her ready stance, "Leave this place!"

"Not until I get some answers," he resigned himself and held his staff before him, grasping it in the middle with both hands. "Now either talk or fight!"

"Have it your way," she said resignedly.

This time they both charged, the ninja drawing both her blades, and Xander making a twist with his wrists. They met in a full body blow, both knocked back a little by the force, and took the time to size each other up anew. Xander still held his staff by the middle and the ninja had both her tantō drawn and their defenses were just about equal.

Xander moved first, utilizing a horizontal strike combo, hitting nothing but her raised armored gauntlet each time. Then she struck, hitting nothing by his staff each time, and for some reason her blades couldn't even scratch the surface of the weapon, despite it apparently being made of wood.

They traded blows like this several times, always blocking, parrying, or knocking back from the force of the defense. Finally, came the decisive blow that spelled the end of the battle.

The ninja had just finished a kicking combo that had forced Xander to retreat some, and she saw an opening as he reeled back some. She drew her the tantō from her back and made an upward slicing attack. Xander barely managed to get his staff back up in time, so her blade hit the exact middle of his staff. An amazing thing then happened, to the kunoichi at least.

Xander's staff snapped right in two!

Stunned by this, as she had noticed earlier how his staff seemed to be impervious to existential damage, she backed away in confusion and shock. Until she noticed that he wasn't shocked at all, instead he was grinning savagely at her.

"Oh, you shouldn'ta done that," he teased her, now twirling both halves of his staff on his wrists. He shifted his stance from Bojutsu to Escrima and charged her again, this time instead of going directly at her with his weapon, he slid the last few feet in a slider-kick at her unprotected legs, slamming her into the ground.

Rolling back to his feet while she picked herself up, Xander slipped in quicker than she thought he could move and knocked her on the back of the head with one of his Arnis-staff sticks, then slammed the other under her chin, then the first one into the middle of her back knocking her forward, he spun around even faster and this time swung both of them into her torso, then he spun down into a sweeper kick that knocked her to the floor again. Before she could get back up again though, he twirled the sticks around until he brought them up over his head and dropped them, before reasserting his grip once the other ends were in his hands and thrust them painfully down onto her prone body.

Figuring she'd had enough by now, he backed away and waited.

"Had enough yet?" he asked, slightly out of breath, he reattached his sticks into a single staff.

"Funny," she groaned as she got back to her feet for the third time, "I was just about to ask you the same question."

Before they could resume, either battle of weapons or battle of wits, they stopped as they both felt the tickle at the back of their necks that spoke to them of approaching danger. Without warning, they both suddenly rolled towards each other, narrowly escaping several throwing stars and kunais that had landed where they'd both just been standing.

Now standing back-to-back, Xander whispered over his shoulder, "Is there something I should know about?"

"I'm a renegade of the Fu-Ma clan, for arguing against acquiring Soul Edge for the Leader," she explained quietly.

"So . . . the Fu-Ma want Soul Edge for . . ."

"For it's power and because the Leader has become obsessed with it and I believe is truly insane."

"So . . ." Xander did some fast thinking, "chances are pretty good the your . . . ex-friends out there just heard or saw our whole duel there and they're gonna wanna kill me for trespassing as well as the fact that I'm looking for Soul Edge too, and they're gonna wanna kill you because you just went renegade?"

She merely grunted in acknowledgment as they watched the ninja drop out from nowhere or appear out of the shadows better than Dead Boy ever could.

"OK, so how about this, since we suddenly find ourselves on the same side," he whispered back to her, "we help each other out, get the hell out of here, and talk about Soul Edge, fragments, and Soul Calibur later after we aren't in danger of getting killed. Sound good?"

She was silent for several moments until one really big guy silently appeared right in front of her. "Agreed," she quickly hissed at her unexpected ally.

"Name's Xander," he twisted the staff once more to unlock it, "Yours?"

"Taki," she introduced herself, not taking her eyes off the enemies surrounding them.

"Nice to meet ya," he said back, then adjusted his grip on his staff and continued, "But as much fun as I've been having, I think I've worn out my welcome and I personally feel like leaving. So, how about we take our leave, and since it looks like you're not having any fun anymore either, you're more than welcome to join me for a moonlit stroll through the countryside. How does that sound to you?"

She would have shot him a dirty look, but instead merely grunted her agreement and tightened her grip on her weapons. "Break for the cliff on three, block what you can, but stay with me," he ordered, more serious now. "THREE!" he then charged at the open space between two of the new ninja, spinning his staff around his body, and Taki's, as much as possible to block incoming weaponry. Apparently taking that as the signal, the ninjas all moved to attack, or threw more stars and knives at them, but Taki, moving with Xander, made sure to keep any from directly hitting them.

Taki cursed, staying close behind him, sparks dancing off of her blades as she blocked shuriken, kunai, and even a few poisoned senbon needles and then, before any of them, even Taki, knew it, the two were past the line of ninjas and on the edge of a cliff, opposite the side of the stairs that Xander had climbed to get to the temple.

"Hold on to me!" he cried, pausing for half a beat, allowing her to realize the plan before he jumped, his staff still whirling about deflecting the occasional attack. Meanwhile, for that half a beat, Taki, deciding to trust him for some unexplainable reason, jumped just as he did and grabbed and held on to his back for dear life as they went over the cliff, many of the ninja jumping after them.

END Battle 1


	2. Battle 2: Faith VS Talim

Title:Soul Calibur: Slayer

Author:Joshua

Disclaimer:Namco owns the Soul Calibur series, and all related characters of course, meanwhile Joss Whedon and Mutant/Enemy Productions created the characters Xander, Buffy, and Faith, and other related such characters. A lot of the relationships between all characters is different from what might be "said" to happen in the games, mostly due that these characters are the "descendants" of those characters, living in modern times, yet still weapons masters of the same martial art forms and weapons and all, of course, are looking for Soul Edge and/or Soul Calibur.

Summary:Soul Edge, after centuries of imprisonment, has finally escaped its Seal under Soul Calibur, coinciding with the activation of the Slayer Line. Reading the signs, the Watcher's send a team out to recover both blades, meanwhile other warriors across the globe begin their own search for the mystic weapons.

Author's Notes:Post Angel Season 5, the Scooby Gang, with notable exceptions of Giles, Dawn and Willow, took vacations, with the others reforging the New Watcher's Council, going to school in Cleveland, and mastering Magick, which was more fun except in Dawn's case. Buffy, after living it up in Italy for a year, finally got over herself and returned to her happy normal self and was no longer depressed, or attracted to 'evil guys', just the bad boys. Faith received counseling and dated Wood for all of a month before moving on and returning, in part, to her previous lifestyle of action, sex, and one-night stands, and finally made peace with Buffy and the rest of the Scoobies, just because. Xander, took a looong vacation away from demons, and then under the advice of Giles and Willow, began studying martial arts, partly to teach them to Slayers, partly to use for himself. After his sojourn to Africa and setting up the Slayer Camp there, he took another vacation before returning to England just in time for this latest assignment. He hasn't seen Buffy, Faith, or Willow in more than a year, yet has maintained correspondence. Dawn got over her Xander-crush, has dated in High School, is now attending Oxford in England, is NOT a part of the story, WILL **NOT** be a part of the story, and because she was made out of Buffy's Blood, became a Slayer after she turned 18 and Willow took the last of the Key out of her. Willow is still working on learning more about magic, but is argued to be the most powerful magic-user in North America as well as across all of Europe. She's also the one that detected Soul Edge's Awakening.

Story:

Battle 2:_Faith_ **vs**. _Talim_

Faith didn't like heat.

Oh, it had it's place, and in moderation it was a great way to relax, get naked, (which Faith loved to do, especially if it involved sex shortly after getting naked), or just plain look hot while being hot! After all, Faith had loved summer time growing up, and then had lived in Southern California for nearly four years, which certainly ranked up there on the heat index.

But Faith was a born and bred Boston girl, and while Boston summers got pretty bad, almost as bad as California summers, (no pun intended), she also liked cool spring and fall and cold snowy winters to break up the heat!

This . . . this was not Boston, or even Southern California summer heat! This was enough to make a Slayer pant for ice and air conditioning like a sissy spoiled white rich kid! She knew that because /_she_/ was a Slayer and she /_was_/ begging for ice and air conditioning after five minutes of walking through this insufferable heat!

But that was India for ya.

How the fuck did Jeeves and Red expect her to find a "Priestess of the Wind" in this?!

She'd taken three steps out of the airport before racing back inside and almost drained the nearest water fountain and bought a pound-heavy ice pack and stood under an AC vent for another fifteen minutes before braving it again.

When she'd finally made the five-minute trek from the airport exit to the bus station across the parking lot, the ice had melted, she'd drunk the hot melt water, and was sweating so much she was bordering on being dehydrated all over again. Of course she was just over-exaggerating.

But not by much.

Once inside the thankfully air-conditioned bus station, she provided the proper paperwork Giles had given her in order to get her to the right place, but was dismayed when she discovered that the bus would not be air-conditioned, nor would it be selling any ice-cold beverages along the 3-day journey. Nor would she have the bus all to herself and the driver (and to boot the driver wasn't at all attractive) but have to put up with a small family (of 16, one of them an infant) and their pets and luggage that were going just a bit farther in the same direction she was going.

Of course for a Slayer to be dismayed, that means she only just barely managed to stop herself from ripping his head off with her bare hands. A feat she, and a number of other slayers, had proved possible by successfully managing to tear vamps heads off without a sword or knife.

Speaking of knives, Faith reminded herself to keep the pair Buffy had gotten her for her last birthday on her person at all times. No telling what the rugrats on the bus would get their grimy little mitts on during the journey.

There was a funny story behind those knives, or not so funny for those without the same sense of morbid humor the former Scooby gang had developed over the years. Both of them were 100 exact replicas of the knife that Mayor Wilkins had given to Faith, except that where that one had been made of simple stainless steel, of the pair Buffy had given her, one was melted down from a silver cross and then trice blessed (Catholic, Protestant, and Wiccan) and the other melted down from the gold of a holy icon that the Council needed to make disappear and forged by magic in one of Willow's experiments at Buffy's request.

Faith had named them, as one was supposed to do to really special weapons, Hope & Joy, the silver one Hope, the gold one Joy. Making her, when she wielded both as only a Slayer can, Faith, Hope & Joy. What was really cool though was that while Hope could dust vamps better than a stake soaked with Holy Water, Joy set vamps aflame from a single scratch and vanquished demons that were tougher than all get out. Whenever the dark slayer asked Willow about that, the red witch just smiled mysteriously and deftly avoided the question.

In the meantime though, Faith had to deal with a three-day trip on a hot, crowded, noisy, smelly, suck-ass bus out to the middle of nowhere in a country that Faith planned on nominating for the hottest and muggiest place on the planet. And if she could have, she would've argued that Hell was a few degrees cooler.

It took longer than they'd told her actually, as about halfway there the bus lost one of its tires and the jack had broken at some point. After a single night in the dingy shack the unlikely crew had holed up in, Faith had lost patience and risked the consequences, using her slayer strength to maximum in holding the bus up as the driver changed the tire and got them back on the road. It was almost worth it since there was finally some silence on the drive, unfortunately it only lasted a few hours before the kids were all bouncing up and down, pestering her with questions and exclaiming they knew a real superhero now.

Finally, after almost five solid days of travel, Faith stepped off of the bus into the middle of nowhere. Or more specifically, at the side of the road, which was at the base of a mountain, where about a mile into the wilderness began a trail leading across the mountain into a hidden valley that only the Watcher's Council, and select other "secret" organizations and supernaturally-inclined knew about.

It was the last, protected, refuge of the Followers of the Wind.

Faith started walking, thanking the heavens for finally some peace and quiet, and cursing out Giles and Willow for a solid hour, each, for sending her on this . . . errand! Once she'd actually started up the mountain on the trail, she meditated more on the task she and the others had been given.

A demonic sword that corrupts whoever wields it and makes them uber-strong to boot.

Faith had enough experience with both sides of the field to know that everybody and their brother, cousin, and uncle's kitten would be looking for either the whole thing, or pieces of it like Red had them doing. And they didn't even know /_exactly_/ what Soul Edge did! Only that a few hundred years ago, an undead pirate got ahold of it, and then a knight that became corrupted by it and laid waste to most of Europe in the process. Unfortunately, Apocalypses had been started on less than what this legend spoke of, and Faith wasn't willing to argue about running "errands" with something like this. She'd learned her lesson.

Moving at a brisk pace (for a Slayer, for anyone else she could have outraced a cheetah), Faith made it to the peak of the mountain by sundown, and caught her first glimpse of the hidden valley. It was almost Eden-like, she had to admit, but it wasn't entirely untouched. There were people there, she could see them lighting fires and there was enough sunlight to see the rudimentary buildings they'd constructed. Lots of windmills, she noted, but the biggest seemed to be some kind of clock as well as windmill.

Despite still probably being able to make it all the way to the village, Faith didn't feel it would be a good first impression if she showed up in the middle of the night demanding to speak to a "Priestess of the Wind" about a demonic sword called Soul Edge. So, using the remaining sunlight and her superior slayer night vision, the dark slayer made her way down the mountain and roughly what she judged to be about 2 o'clock in the morning, she settled herself down underneath a tree on some soft moss and slept until dawn.

Just as the first ray of sunlight crested the valley, Faith entered the village, startling some, drawing curious stares from most, and being ignored by others. Figuring the large windmill-clock tower to be some kind of monument or meeting place, Faith made her way there, meanwhile praying that at least somebody in this village spoke English or a derivative of it. She doubted she'd get cell service out here to call Red up for a translation spell.

After about an hour of walking and wandering about, Faith made it to the tower and saw that she was at least partially correct. It was a monument, but it didn't look like there was anyone there or nearby that could actually help her. She tried going back and asking for help from a few of the villagers, but either they didn't understand her, or they were frightened of her. Either way, they ignored her and didn't speak, and very soon after she couldn't find anyone even on the streets.

Sighing in frustration, she headed back to the clock tower and tried to see if there was a way inside. Maybe someone lived here that could or would help her.

It didn't take her long to find the door, or the stairs that lead up to a platform at the top of the clock tower. The whole valley laid out like some kind of picture, Faith observed from the balcony/platform.

Suddenly, Faith tensed as the hairs on the back of her neck shot up like they were headed for the moon. Having always trusted her feelings, especially ones like these, even before she got Called as a Slayer, Faith immediately dove to the side and drew her weapons, her Slayer instincts guiding her blades to where they needed to be in order to guard against the unexpected attack. Almost out of nowhere, though in hindsight Faith could guess the attacker came jumping down from the rafters, a twirling blur, that Faith's enhanced senses determined to be a young girl with a pair of bladed Batons, or tonfa-like weapons, in her hands, sailed past where she'd just been and just barely glanced off of Faith's guard.

Thankfully, the girl didn't go flying off of the tower, instead landing and rolling to her feet in a dancing defense guard. "Geez! What the hell?! Are you crazy or something?" Faith shouted at the girl that looked younger that she herself was!

"You don't belong here. Please, leave here at once!" the girl spoke in nearly flawless English, or at least that's what Faith heard. She quickly realized that the girl's mouth didn't match up with the words she'd heard. So either this girl was doing something to make Faith understand her intentions, it was this place somehow translating for them, or . . . Willow.

/_'Figured you could use a little bit of help,'_/ came the witch's telepathic reply, who was no doubt still in England. /_'Oh, and for the record Faith, she isn't evil, and while I can't be positive, she feels like the Priestess of the Wind that we need. Problem is, you're going to have to convince her that _/you/_ aren't the evil one.'_/

"Geez Red," Faith rolled her eyes at the compendium of issues piling up, "try not to make this too hard for me."

The young Indian girl frowned at Faith, a look of troubled confusion crossing her face. She stepped forward and stated, "There is a stagnant wind around you. And . . . Your eyes... have so much sadness."

Faith scowled, and silently cursed Willow and Giles out with every swear she'd ever learned, real or imagined. First for sending her on this stupid mission, and then for tagging a freaking priestess that was younger than her and a part-time psychiatrist to boot!

"Listen," Faith spoke gently and slowly lowered her weapons, yet did not put them away, "My name is Faith. I need your help."

The girl's confusion rose, and then her face scowled as she stepped back and raised her weapons back up, a look of intense mistrust aimed at Faith. The Dark Slayer quickly realized what had set the girl off, and let off a fresh load of curses at interfering busybody redheaded witches.

"Look, it's not what you think!" Faith tried to calm the girl down.

"Please, just leave!" the girl almost seemed to beg, but her stance spoke differently.

"I can't, I need your hel . . ." the girl cut Faith off by charging right at her and with a flying leap, which was hella faster than Faith expected it to be, and nearly took the Slayer's head off with her weapons.

If she hadn't ducked and rolled away in time, Faith might very well have matched Buffy in height the next time they met.

"Fine, you wanna be that way," Faith growled, letting her temper get the better of her as she brought forth her own weapons, holding them military style, with the blades running alongside her forearms, "then let's do this!"

The girl nodded, and replied, "Some things can only be conveyed through battle." Then she paused and smiled briefly and told Faith, "My name is Talim."

"Faith," the Dark Slayer returned.

The formalities out of the way, the two stood ready to do battle, with nothing but them, the windmill clock tower, and the wind as witnesses.

The two slowly began to circle around one another, watching, waiting for an opening, or maybe even a reason not to fight at all. Finally, inevitable as it was, Faith's patience ran out and she charged with a wild yell, slashing her weapons horizontally, driving the young girl back. Talim raised her guard, and on Faith's next attack, countered by pushing back and to the side, leaving the Slayer's defenses wide open, which she took full advantage of with a strong double-kick to the middle.

Faith, surprised, was knocked back, but thankfully not the same way she might have if a Slayer or a super-strong demon had hit her like that. She'd hate to be fighting one of her own, though it certainly looked like this girl had some serious skills of her own. Shaking off the pain and the surprise that the mortal girl had managed to tap her, Faith grinned savagely and charged back in.

Of course the last thing Faith expected her to do was to do a somersault and flip right over her head, then, before the Slayer could even turn around to look, did a another somersault, this time with a kick to the back of the neck, which knocked Faith to the floor. Hard.

With a growl, shaking herself slightly from the blow, Faith rolled forward and then blocked the blind sided attack coming at her from the left. She retaliated with a sweep of Hope, and then blocked an overhead strike from one of the bladed tonfas, before switching tactics slightly and punched the girl in the face at half strength. Thus, the priestess only flew back to just the edge of the platform, and not falling off to her death.

"Y'know, you're actually pretty good," Faith drawled, "but let me warn you right now. I'm a Slayer, and if you don't know what that means, then you're about to find out, the hard way."

"I . . . won't give up," the girl hissed through grit teeth as she got back to her feet, much slower than Faith did, but then, Faith was a Slayer.

"Y'know, you really should. We shouldn't even be fighting at all," Faith tried to talk her around.

"Some things can only be conveyed through battle . . ." Talim reiterated.

"Yeah, yeah," Faith interrupted, "You said that already. Let's just get the conveying over with already."

In reply, Talim just charged and leaped straight at Faith, throwing her own punch with the fully weight and force of her small body, but with hard weapons behind the hit, knocking Faith to the ground once again. Before Faith could get back to her feet though, the priestess did another somersault, extending her legs straight out, and landed them in the middle of the older brunette's torso.

"That's starting to get real old," Faith wheezed as she rolled out and stood once more.

Faith let the girl land one more hit on her, a scissor-like move, bringing her weapons up to hit the Slayer in the chest, one coming from the top, the other from the bottom. It knocked Faith back, but not to the ground. Talim, noticing this, jumped back, partly in fear, mostly in good common sense, as the look Faith shot her was almost enough to kill her just by itself.

"OK, now it's on," the Slayer growled, losing her temper.

Leaping up to her feet in a fluid motion, Faith dashed forward and tried a running slash, which would have disemboweled the unprepared. As it was, the girl danced off to the side, just before Faith would have hit. Not missing a beat, she slashed with her other blade, only to be blocked when the girl defended, crossing both tonfa in front of her to shield against. The force of the blow was still enough to knock the girl back and drop her defenses. Faith didn't hesitate as she jumped up and did a spinning back kick to the girl's unprotected torso.

Talim was sent flying back across the platform, actually cracking wood on her landing.

Glaring herself now, the pigtailed girl kipped to her own stance and slowly advanced once more. Faith, on the other hand, finally got her temper under control, and decided to go back on the defense, if only for a moment or two. Good thing she did, especially considering what the Priestess of the Wind pulled out of her bag of tricks next.

Talim suddenly surged forward, hitting Faith on her shoulders, not hard or as an attack, but to knock her a fraction off balance. Enough off balance that she grabbed the brunette's leg, actually dragged her forward a couple of feet, and the second she let go, she slammed her with a three-hit combo from her tonfas, the combined force of which was enough to send the Slayer flying back along the platform.

What made it worse though, was that she screamed (in her native language of course) "Please! Don't die!" That was almost a taunt, if not for the fact that Faith thought she actually _believed_ what she was saying. Right up until Willow's "translation spell" made her realize that the priestess chick had actually only said two words, which changed that taunt into something like a swear word. Only opposite in meaning.

Growling to herself for thinking too much, Faith quickly rolled back to her feet, only to see Talim already flying right at her. The girl did another jumping somersault, her tonfas spinning like mad, forcing the Slayer to block or be cut, right before she did a mid-air splits, brought her tonfa across in another scissoring motion, which actually connected, and then going back down into _another_ somersault, touching the ground for barely an instant before jumping up _again_, but this time striking down while she sailed over Faith's defensive position. Then the girl had the unmitigated gall to _actually_ land on her feet!

After it was all over, Faith identified a ton of new bruises, and at least three new cuts. And the girl had made a cut on her top! That did it. No more Miss Nice Slayer. Priestess or no priestess, little girl or ancient reincarnated warrior, potential ally or deluded brat, _she was going __**down**_!

Getting back to her feet, _one __**more**__ time_, Faith rolled her shoulders a bit and popped her neck. "That the best you can do, T? Cause I'm through playing around!" And Faith finally went on the offensive.

It was over that quick.

Faith, using a combination of energy-gathering techniques Willow and Giles had taught her, along with some . . . tricks that she and Buffy had figured out together by training with each other, combined with some of the martial arts mumbo jumbo that Xander was bringing home to teach everyone, paused for only the moment it took to gather her energy. Either because of the location, the mystical energies in the area, her opponent, the unique combination of techniques, or if she was just that pissed off, Faith felt her chi gather like never before and if she hadn't been so focused on the fight, she might have noticed the green flaming light she was suddenly giving off, or that she visibly blurred when she charged the Priestess of the Winds. She definitely noticed, however, that she landed three full-force slayer-punches to the teenage girl.

Talim, literally did not know what hit her. Only that the foreigner began to gather her chi, charged it to a level Talim herself couldn't hope to match, even with the aid of the Wind, and then flashed forward before the young girl could even begin to blink. The next thing she knew was a sharp pain as the other warrior punched her across the right side of her face, and then the darkness swallowed her too quickly for her to realize it. She never even felt the second punch to her gut, which would have woken her back up since it knocked all the wind out of her, if not for the following final punch to the left side of her head.

After an indeterminate amount of time, consciousness returned to the reluctant Warrior-Priestess. She was surprised to find herself still alive, given that the last thing she knew she'd been fighting a dark sorceress of such power and strength that she'd been KO'd with one hit. Groaning, Talim attempted to sit up, but her body screamed in protest, her wounds making her painfully aware of them.

"You might want to stay still for a little while," said an unfamiliar voice in her own language. At least she heard it that way. Talim's eyes snapped open and she stared in disbelief at seeing the brunette warrior sitting calmly and patiently beside her. They were both still at the top of the windmill clock platform.

"Bout time you woke up," she complained with a sudden accent that Talim hadn't detected before, "Course I'm used to other Slayers being up from hits like that in a minute, tops. You've been down for almost an hour and a half. Y'know I saw my tour bus pull out an hour ago? Shit, if I'd known they were actually gonna stop here... Fuck, I'd've gotten out that much sooner and hiked it anyway."

"Who... who are you?" Talim finally asked, slowly.

"My name is Faith," the stranger answered, "And I'm a Slayer. That means I protect ordinary humans by killing the bad stuff. Demons and vampires and shit. And I need your help. Talim."

Talim was confused, until the Wind blew through the towering structure, bringing with it the "Slayer's" scent, and what she truly was.

"The Protector of Earth?!" she suddenly blurted out.

Faith turned to look at her and blinked in confusion at her exclamation. "Huh?"

"I... I..." Talim stuttered and struggled, despite her wounds, to sit up fully. "I... am the Priestess of the Wind," she finally said once she'd succeeded in sitting up, with the other girl's help. "You... you are the Protector of the Earth!"

Faith blinked again, but this time with surprise. Then, to Talim's eyes, she seemed to be listening to someone, or something else. Much as she herself, she'd been told, looked like when she was communing with the Winds. Finally the stranger, the Slayer... the Protector, grunted, though it seemed more like she was amused by something rather than anything else.

"Well, whatever. If it means you're not gonna attack me and I can get you're help, you can call me the Second Coming if it makes you happy," Faith finally told the girl.

"It would be my honor to help the Protector of Earth," Talim instantly committed herself to her new friend.

"Yeah," suddenly the older brunette appeared to be somewhat hesitant. "Well, by any chance, do you know anything about Soul Edge or Soul Calibur?"

Talim blinked hard herself before gesturing that she would like to stand. Confused, but not seeing the problem with it, at the moment, Faith immediately helped the girl to do just that. She also noticed that the young Priestess was still hanging on to her own weapons with just as much, if not more affection than she placed on her own.

"I know the stories of Soul Edge, and my ancestor who fought to purify it and its fragments, to release the evil so that it might be purified," Talim explained. "It was never known if she succeeded or not, but since the evil blade is no longer in the world, it was assumed that she did."

"Uh... yeah, about that..." Faith hedged the topic for a bit.

"The falling star that people from the outside world are calling Ares Comet?" Talim hazarded a guess.

Faith looked at her companion, a bit surprised, but not by much, and nodded.

"That night, some boys of our village found a piece of metal. They said that it was glowing when they found it, but no longer. The next morning they were fighting, and one of them became very sick. He and the others were brought to me, and showed me the metal." By now they'd reached the bottom of the windmill, and were heading into the village proper. "I felt the evil energy around it before I even saw it. After much debate, I finally decided to attempt to purify it and cleanse the evil from it forever."

"And?" Faith begged to know.

Talim, rather than answer, lead Faith to her own home and then showed the Dark Slayer the chunk of reddish metal that looked about as harmful as a clay rock. Faith opened her link to Willow and got the uber-witch's opinion on it. Rather than go into anything too complex, Willow simply told her the piece of metal, while undoubtedly a fragment of Soul Edge, no longer had any power to it at all, evil or otherwise.

Just to be on the safe side though, Faith took out the specialized containers that Willow and Giles had gotten for her and the others and had Talim drop the fragment into it before sealing it with a pinprick off her thumb to seal it with her blood. Half a second later, the container disappeared in a flash of green light, and another, empty one, took its place in Faith's bag.

After explaining about Willow and her mission, Faith sat Talim down and began treating her wounds, using some potions that Willow had made for the standard First Aid kit she was carrying, and apologizing every ten seconds for being the cause.

"Enough," Talim finally got tired of having the warrior apologize constantly, "The fault lies with me. I pressed you into the fight because of my own paranoia, even while you were here only in peace and in good will. And you need not apologize any longer. You are the Protector of Earth, the Slayer as you said. If I, a Priestess of the Wind, cannot forgive one who is as my own sister, then it would be I who would need to apologize to you."

"But you..." Faith started, but stopped at a hand from Talim.

"Let us, as I've heard an American tourist once say, let bygones be bygones," she then offered her arm in a hand of friendship.

Faith smiled and nodded, and then took the arm with her own and shook it solidly, though still being careful of her strength when holding the younger girl's arm.

"Well then," she finally finished patching Talim up as much as she could, "there's something else I need to ask of you, and this is where your help really comes in Priestess. Though I'm kinda reluctant to ask, given how young you are. But. I started off not much older, younger even, and I've personally recruited 14 and 15 year old slayers myself. And you just proved to me that you can help me out. If not with that purifying thing, you can definitely hold your own in a fight."

Talim waited patiently for Faith to get to her point.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is," Faith took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "Talim, I need your help. And I need you to come with me, on a journey to search for the other fragments of Soul Edge. I'd like it if you would join up with me. You're a nice girl an' all, and it'd be nice to have some company along."

"But this ain't no cakewalk neither," she turned serious, "There's no way of knowing how many fragments are out there, what they can do, who has them, who else is looking for them, or what. All I do know is that it's gotta be done, and Wills and the G-man have put that up to me, and your ancestor did pretty well with this sort of stuff in the past, so I figured it's only fair to ask you."

Faith then shut up and waited for Talim's answer.

"When do we leave?" the excited teenager suddenly gushed.

END Battle 2


	3. Battle 3: Buffy VS Seong MiNa

Title:Soul Calibur: Slayer

Author:Joshua

Disclaimer:Namco owns the Soul Calibur series, and all related characters of course, meanwhile Joss Whedon and Mutant/Enemy Productions created the characters Xander, Buffy, and Faith, and other related such characters. A lot of the relationships between all characters is different from what might be "said" to happen in the games, mostly due that these characters are the "descendants" of those characters, living in modern times, yet still weapons masters of the same martial art forms and weapons and all, of course, are looking for Soul Edge and/or Soul Calibur.

Summary:Soul Edge, after centuries of imprisonment, has finally escaped its Seal under Soul Calibur, coinciding with the activation of the Slayer Line. Reading the signs, the Watcher's send a team out to recover both blades, meanwhile other warriors across the globe begin their own search for the mystic weapons.

Author's Notes:Post Angel Season 5, the Scooby Gang, with notable exceptions of Giles, Dawn and Willow, took vacations, with the others reforging the New Watcher's Council, going to school in Cleveland, and mastering Magick, which was more fun except in Dawn's case. Buffy, after living it up in Italy for a year, finally got over herself and returned to her happy normal self and was no longer depressed, or attracted to 'evil guys', just the bad boys. Faith received counseling and dated Wood for all of a month before moving on and returning, in part, to her previous lifestyle of action, sex, and one-night stands, and finally made peace with Buffy and the rest of the Scoobies, just because. Xander, took a looong vacation away from demons, and then under the advice of Giles and Willow, began studying martial arts, partly to teach them to Slayers, partly to use for himself. After his sojourn to Africa and setting up the Slayer Camp there, he took another vacation before returning to England just in time for this latest assignment. He hasn't seen Buffy, Faith, or Willow in more than a year, yet has maintained correspondence. Dawn got over her Xander-crush, has dated in High School, is now attending Oxford in England, is NOT a part of the story, WILL **NOT** be a part of the story, and because she was made out of Buffy's Blood, became a Slayer after she turned 18 and Willow took the last of the Key out of her. Willow is still working on learning more about magic, but is argued to be the most powerful magic-user in North America as well as across all of Europe. She's also the one that detected Soul Edge's Awakening.

Story:

Battle 3:_Buffy_ **vs.** _Seong Mi-na_

Xander got Japan.

Faith got India.

Buffy?

Buffy got Italy.

To be more specific, Buffy got Rome.

Again.

It was more embarrassing really, the whole reason why American-Valley-Girl Buffy Summers was bored and not exactly enthusiastic about being back in the City of History, Fashion, and European Hot Spot. Summed up in one succinct title of a now long dead demon.

The Immortal.

Which was really kind of a misnomer as first of all, Buffy and her back-up force of twenty other Slayers plus Faith, Willow, Giles, Xander and "Xander's Girls" finally managed to introduce death of the permanent kind to the creature called the Immortal. And secondly, the Immortal was a teen from the pre-Roman Empire days that had botched some evil demon's "Ascension" ceremony and wound up with the invulnerable immortality, but without actually turning into a full demon. So, the mages just "helped" along and completed the Immortal's Ascension and then killed his "ultimate demon form".

It was the fact that Buffy dated him for the months leading up to the slayage that made the entire mission so embarrassing for the oldest Slayer alive. Originally, she'd only gotten that close so she could spy on him and figure out what demon he was supposed to be, (or actually supposed to be turning into), so they could figure out how to finally kill him.

The others were still making fun of her over the whole fiasco. It's also why she was reluctant to return to Rome so soon after said fiasco.

But, Willow had detected a fragment of Soul Edge in the city, and that was enough reason for her to be there. It wasn't until she'd tried switching with Faith and Xander and the brainiacs reminded her that she was, of those given the mission to track down Soul Edge, the only one with enough in-depth experience of the area, that she finally agreed with it.

She was going to get even with Giles and Willow for this.

. . . She didn't know how yet, but she would! And then they would rue the day!

Meanwhile, Buffy had a tiny little shard of demonic-infested metal to find in a major metropolitan city of multiple millions of people made of stone, steel, and overly helpful but not-too-bright people, given that over half of them were all tourists. Simple, right?

Despite common perceptions amongst those that knew her best, Buffy was not exactly stupid, nor was she at all unintelligent. Therefore, in her separate briefing with Willow, just before she'd left (First Class, Yay!) for her mission, she'd learned that Soul Edge's energy resonated primarily amongst warriors and fighters. Although a certain class or a powerful enough magician or practitioner would detect those same energies, the shards of Soul Edge themselves would seek out to be bonded with powerful warriors and enhance the darker aspects of said warriors.

Which, of course, meant that Buffy was going to exactly one place, and it was first on her list.

The Gladiator Pit.

Basically think Ancient Roman Colosseum meets Modern Street Fight meets Hell's Angels Bar venue.

It was the kind of place a Slayer went to, to have fun, get information, and fight. Mostly to fight and have fun while fighting. If Faith knew that Buffy was going here, she'd be so jealous.

The Pit was primarily for human fighters only, although the occasional demon or vampire had managed to slip into the ranks, any deaths that occurred while not unprecedented, were strictly taboo and more often than not a fighter got kicked out or killed himself if the death was anything but accidental. Therefore, Buffy knew that if she happened to come across any, shall we say "exceptional" fighters there, meaning they could hold their own against her, she had a damn good clue as to where to start finding those shards of Soul Edge.

After all, when it came to physical power and fighting strength, the Slayer was the top of the food chain. Anything tougher, and you're talking cheating on a major level, either a high-level demon or high-level magics, or worse, inhuman experimentation.

As she made her way into the Pit itself, the screams of the crowd became overwhelming. Still, thanks to Slayer-enhanced senses, she could make out the sounds of what was happening in the arena itself just fine. Moving through the crowd, shoving those that wouldn't move with more than a bit of Slayer strength, she quickly came to a spot where she could see what was happening as well.

A young woman, no older than 24, no younger than 15 or 16, dressed up in a belly shirt and high-cut skirt that had slits on both sides showing enough leg that it might as well just be called an elaborate loincloth. She had brown hair done up in a pony tail and was using a sort of shortened glaive-like weapon called a _Zanbatō_. And she was fighting what looked to be a cross between an crocodile and a Polgara demon that had some kind of magical energy weapon that could reform itself into whatever the demon wanted it to be.

As Buffy looked on, the young girl danced in around the demon's guard, ducking and rolling to the side when it attacked, and attacking with horizontal and vertical slashes from her zanbatō to the demon's backside. The attacks did not seem to be all that effective, but Buffy noticed that as the fight continued and wore on, the demon's attacks came half a beat slower and it was just a bit unbalanced afterwards. Nothing that anyone could clearly identify, unless they knew what to look for.

Hey, being the Slayer, if anything, gives you experience in finding the weaknesses of demons when they pop up. As well as how to exploit them.

But she wasn't here to fight the demon.

She was here for the girl.

Buffy watched as the girl solidly _owned_ the demon. Swinging her pig-sticker around, jumping, twisting, the green scaly brute just couldn't keep up with her, and when he succeeded in blocking, all she did was jump up and use centrifugal force to add to the power of her attacks, added with the fact that she had a foot-long curved blade attached to the end of her weapon, it did some serious damage in a short amount of time, and even a really tough demon with unknown powers and some kind of energy melee weapon is KO before too long.

"WINNER!" the Judge/Announcer/Referee shouted, "SEONG MI-NA!"

Smirking to herself, Buffy walked over to the sign-up desk and put it down as a personal challenge.

Two hours later, she found herself in the Pit, on the other side of the ring from the Korean femme fighter Seong Mi-Na. Buffy herself was in a standard, 'planning-on-a-REALLY-tough-fight' outfit for a Slayer. Translate as, skin hugging tank top with small tight straps, tight black lycra pants, heavy combat boots, her favorite leather jacket, and the Slayer Scythe, with her shoulder length blond hair up in a secure ponytail.

Her opponent, Seong Mi-Na, or "Mina" to her close friends, was dressed as minimally as any experienced fighter would be. Her own hair was tied back, but with a headband rather than a scrunchy. She wore a high-cut brown leather halter top, and her brown leather loincloth skirt left both her legs free to move in any direction, still 'covering' everything even on high kicks. She also wore knee-high leather wrapped combat boots of her own, and while it was a foot or so longer, her zanbatō was easily matched by the Slayer Scythe.

Also, Buffy knew the girl was no Slayer, no matter how easily she'd trashed the demon from before.

The crowd was restless, especially after the last fight where Seong Mi-Na clearly dominated. Plus, everybody loves a good catfight. Finally, seemingly for the first time, Mina turned her attention away from the screaming, and very loud audience to take in her opponent, only to stop short and stare with wide eyes.

"Buffy?" she blurted out, clearly surprised.

"Hey Mina, long time," Buffy grinned, twirling the Slayer Scythe from her back into a guard position, holding it by the hilt with her right hand and the stake with her left hand. "Let's have some fun, OK?" she gave Mina her typical greeting whenever fighting a human.

Mina grinned back and spun her zanbatō around a few time and getting into her own ready position, saying, "This should be," she grinned broadly swinging her weapon around again, "a good warm up match."

Then she called over to Buffy as they both stepped up to their marks and waited for the Announcer to give the OK to begin the fight. "Listen up," she said, still grinning, "this fights mine."

Buffy just grinned back and casually tossed the scythe up in a twisting arch, catching it with her other hand and replied, "That's what you said the last time I beat you."

"You certainly talk big, don't you? You're such and idiot," Mina insulted her, "What's with that outfit?"

Buffy's hazel eyes flared with fury. "Excuse me?! And what's wrong with my outfit?"

Just then the Announcer shouted over the bell, "FIGHT! BEGIN!"

Mina immediately went on the offensive, striking with her weapon in an overhead arc that would hurt a lot, and at the very least send the eldest Slayer flying back. That is, if it had hit. Buffy, having seen it coming a mile away, merely side-stepped the attack and went in at an angle and grabbed the brunette in a grapple. One that she quickly overpowered the weaker girl with and quickly threw her down. After kneeing her in the gut, groin, sternum and nose, once each, and then flipping the girl onto her back, painfully, after that.

The girl lay there for a moment, somewhat stunned, but she recovered quickly and rolled herself back to her feet, striking out with her legs in a sweeping kick, which managed to connect and sent Buffy crashing to the floor shortly after. Both quickly kipped back up to their stances and moved in to continue the battle.

Mina swung a horizontal attack at Buffy, who held up the Scythe to effectively block it, and then struck out with a rising side kick to knock her opponent back. Taking advantage of the opening it presented, she moved into a series of high, mid, and low kicks, every alternate kick varying in force. By the end of the combo, Mina was thrown back all the way to the wall of the cage, and did not have the strength to catch herself before falling to the floor with a heavy thud.

Unfortunately, that was not the end of it. Although Buffy hadn't expected it to be, seeing as how much she had held back on each of her blows. Besides, she was having fun and didn't want this to end so soon!

They went back and forth, trading kicks and alternating strikes with their weapons. Because they each held back, not enough to make it obvious, but enough so that the fight would be prolonged, they very rarely landed a blow, more often than not blocking each other's attacks and countering, just to have those blocked as well. Unfortunately, this was not any fight on the street that had it's own purpose, but a battle in the middle of a street fighter tournament, therefore it was a timed match and if this went on too long, the crowd would become rather... restless.

Finally, Round one was called with a draw, but it was still new enough that the crowd didn't care and were screaming with the excitement of seeing two hot babes with bladed weapons fight a cage match. Taking a few moments to catch her breath, Buffy looked across the platform at her opponent and thought back to her mission. In particular, the last minute powwow she'd had with Willow and Giles before coming to Rome.

/_New Watchers Council HQ_/

/_London, England_/

/_Two Days Ago_/

"Y'know, I still can't believe you guys are sending me back to Rome! Do you know the stress I went through the last time I was there?" Buffy whined as she finished packing a few more clothes into her suitcase.

"Oh, yes, I am so terribly sorry for forcing you to return to the city where you spent over ten thousand dollars of the Council's petty cash on designer clothes, spent every night partying at all of the nightclubs and staying in a five star international hotel and going to a luxury spa at least once a week. I truly apologize for making you go through this," Giles sarcastically replied.

Buffy, duly chastised and blushing did not respond, instead finishing putting a few last articles away.

"The reason we're sending you to Rome, Buffy," Willow picked up the conversation as she sat down on the Slayer's bed across from her, "is because out of all the cities in the world, it's one of the very few that are in the same place they were the last time Soul Edge was active. And, it also has as high a demon count as Sunnydale every did. Not to mention..."

"The Colosseum, the Gladiator Pit, the Arena, and other such places that tend to draw in street fighters, the common thug, and your modern day warrior that just likes to fight," she finished for the witch. "Yeah, I know. I visited all of them, almost as much and as often as the nightclubs." She sent a mild glare in Giles' direction at that remark.

"What should I even be looking for? As we all know, those places, and all the ones just like them drew in as many vamps and human form demons as it did really strong guys or really weak mages with a few spells on them. How the heck am I supposed to tell if somebody is being affected by a shard of Soul Edge?"

"That's part of what we wished to discuss with you before you departed," Giles answered.

"For starters, it will be pretty obvious when someone is being controlled by Soul Edge. More aggression, a lot more strength, speed, and enough endurance that it would make most seem downright invulnerable. There's also the life-draining aspect. Hopefully it won't come up, but more than likely you'll sense an air of dread or darkness and a whole lot of evil around the person. That's the first stage of when there are either enough shards together or one powerful enough that instead of draining the life of the host, it begins to drain the life from all things, and people around it and the warrior carrying the shard."

"Sounds fun," Buffy deadpanned.

"It gets worse," Willow winced a bit.

"We most certainly did not want to scare any of you with this information, but since you'll be taking the Scythe with you, not that you shouldn't as I feel you might need it," Giles said. "Since the Slayer Scythe is in fact a magical weapon of who truly knows how ancient it is, there exists the possibility that if even one shard of Soul Edge comes into contact with it, it could infect the Scythe."

Buffy frowned. "And... what does that mean?"

"Buffy... since, well since it was necessary, but since I had to use the Scythe to activate all of the Slayers in the world... well, it's more a theory, but..." Willow babbled.

"Guys!" the blond Slayer shouted. "Speak!"

"There's a chance that Soul Edge might infect the Slayer Scythe with it's evil and thereby transfer all of it's power and demonic energy and evil influence to all of the Slayers in the world thereby making every Slayer on the planet an extension of Soul Edge's will... just like Siegfried became the Azure Knight Nightmare when he was corrupted by Soul Edge," Willow said all in one breath.

Buffy just stood there, blinked a couple of times and let out a sigh she didn't know she'd been holding. "So don't let the shards touch the Scythe. Got it."

"That was more the general warning and, well to not put too fine a point on it, the good news, Buffy," Giles continued.

"I really hate it when you start sentences like that, Giles," Buffy scowled at her former Watcher.

"At the same time that we'll be trying to prevent Soul Edge from returning in any form, the shards themselves present a more pressing concern," he began, "as even with but a fraction of Soul Edge's power that lay dormant within each shard, some power hungry demon or misguided mage or, heavens forbid, some human criminal dabbling in things beyond his or her understanding may very well try to start their own versions of the apocalypse before Soul Edge even appears. As bad as the weapon itself is, what it can be used for is so much worse."

"So... instead of just a worldwide scavenger hunt, we have a bunch of potential apocalypses on our plate too? Oh joy. Let me guess, even if me, Faith, or Xander come across a lead that would lead us to finding the real Soul Edge and getting it before it falls into worse hands, but at the same time come across an immediate threat of somebody using the shards for a current apocalypse, we stop the apocalypse and go back to the lead later, is that what I'm hearing here?"

Shrugging, Willow nodded and said, "Pretty much."

"I'll be expecting full back up from both of you on this," the Queen Slayer ordered. "And open up those negotiations with Riley's people again. As much as the Initiative is part of Capitalist America, I'm pretty sure they don't want just anyone having a piece of one of the few so-called 'Ultimate Weapons' in existence."

"They may even regard that it does not belong in our hands either," Giles pointed out.

"Speak directly to their superiors. If they can provide adequate proof than their means of containing, and please emphasize that I said /_contain/_ not /_study/_, the shards are superior to ours, we'll let them keep any that they find first. If they refuse to show us or insist on studying them in any way, tell them that we'll pull their asses out of the fire like we did the last time they messed with something I told them not to," she snapped.

"I'll take care of it," he assured her.

"Good. Now, I've got a plane to catch and then some ugly pieces of metal to find. Wish me luck," she grinned and grabbed her suitcase and weapon's bag.

"Good luck," Willow said, as she hugged her shorter friend closely. "Oh, and don't worry, I'll be checking in with each of you, keep you apprised to the sitch and all."

"You let her watch Kim Possible again, didn't you?" Buffy glared accusingly at Giles.

"I did no such thing," he huffed, then deflated. "She stole the remote right out of my hands and let the Slayers change it to that horrid, horrid program. Just because they can all do the same things a cartoon character can pull off is no reason to idolize over a bit of paint and ink!"

"And on that note, I'm off!" Buffy gave Willow one last hug and even conned one out of Giles. She was on the plane to Italy within the hour.

/_The Gladiator's Pit_/

/_Rome, Italy_/

/_Round 2_/

"Round Two! FIGHT!" the voice echoed through the caged arena.

The two women warriors slowly approached each other, weapons on guard. Suddenly Mina dashed forward and slammed the heavy weighted end of her zanbatō against the shorter blond's head, knocking her back and to the ground from the force of it. Buffy immediately swung around and was back on her feet. Oh, the blow had hurt alright, it was just that it was no different than Spike's punches all those years ago in High School by comparison.

Mina then made a few thrusting stabs with the bladed side, forcing Buffy to defend once more. With a smirk on her face, she decided to show off a little bit and made it so when Mina's blade hit, it was always against the business end of the blade on the Slayer Scythe. Given the limited space of movement and the rapid change within that space, it was a very impressive feat.

Once the brunette finished her combo, Buffy darted in and did your basic leg sweep, knocking Mina off her feet and to the floor. She then darted back, waiting for her opponent to get back to her feet, but once she had, she ran in at full speed, right before dropping to a slide where she then performed a picture-perfect scissor kick to send the Southeastern Asian back to the ground with devastating impact.

When she got back to her feet again, the Slayer, quite simply, rand in again and did a sliding reverse kick, followed by an immediate rising dragon kick that actually lifted the poor girl into the air a few feet before she landed with a dull thump. Mina got back to her feet faster than Buffy expected, and tried to get away from the super-powered girl with a mystical weapon backing her up, but the Slayer was just too damn quick.

Buffy dashed in and maneuvered to get the girl into a hold. Normally, in the spirit of friendly competition, she would at least allow her opponent to show off a little bit before ending it with a tie. The fact that she started things off with a tie instead should have been all the signal Mina needed. Buffy intended to end this as quickly as she possibly could.

Using the blade of the Scythe to knock the other girl's weapon out of the way, Buffy caught Mina in a running clothesline, using enough force than instead of going to the ground, the girl's body was actually mid-air for several moments. During those moments, Buffy instantly stopped her momentum, turned her body completely around and grabbed Mina's head with her other arm and ran full Slayer speed for three steps in the other way, flipping the girl completely around, so much so that she /_still/_ landed on her back. Buffy smirked and then did a jumping back flip, keeping her legs and feet straight, and managed to land with her feet coming down first onto Mina's torso, knocking the wind out of the girl. Before the rest of her landed on the ground from the 'spent-way-too-much-time-proving-Pro-Wrestling-Techniques-are-real-for-Baby-Slayers' move, Buffy managed to get her arms underneath her and caught herself on her finger tips, like she was doing push-ups.

Still showing off, and still supported mostly by her fingertips, Buffy went into a handstand, or would it be fingertip-stand?, and flipped back to her feet, allowing Mina the opportunity to get up again, if she so desired. Apparently she did, as the girl tiredly did just that.

Raising an eyebrow, Buffy just stood there as Mina gathered her energy and charged in for one last assault. At the very last moment, Buffy side-stepped out of the way and did a drop-heel kick to the back of the girl's neck, knocking her out of this fight.

"K.O!" the voice announced and the crowd went wild.

Unfortunately, Buffy knew because she had let it go to a tie in the first round, there was still Round Three. If, that is of course, Mina was still capable of continuing.

She was, but not for long. Round Three started as the others did, Mina, in a bit of desperation, tried the same knock back maneuver that had worked on her last round. Buffy side-stepped it and taking a moment to gather her strength and judge the amount of power needed, she clenched her fist, the one not holding the Slayer Scythe, and slammed a full Slayer strength punch into the girl's gut. Almost puking, Mina went wide-eyed and tried to cough, or do anything with her breath, but Buffy wasn't having any of that. She completed the punch and with the rest of her energy, threw the girl to the other end of the arena, where she crashed into the cage wall and fell bonelessly to the floor. Instant KO with not a single hit on her, it was a Perfect Win. The crowd, of course, went wild, loving every second of it.

Afterwards, when Mina regained consciousness, she asked the blond Slayer, "So, any reason you humiliated me out there like that? I was on a wining streak, I'll have you know!"

"Well, it's like this..." Buffy began to explain.

END Battle 3


End file.
